DJ Sanders never imagined she would leave the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Sanders didn’t attract a lot of attention from college coaches during a standout multi-sport career at New Hope High School in Columbus. One opportunity — to play for coach Michael Lotief at Louisiana — was enough. It gave Sanders a nationally known program to play for and a place where she could polish her blossoming softball skills with a coach with a reputation for developing hitters.
After three years in which she matured into one of the nation’s premier power hitters, Sanders will have a new home in 2018. Last week, Oregon coach Mike White announced Sanders, a senior shortstop, intended to transfer from Louisiana and that she would be eligible to play in 2018.
“DJ’s abilities are obvious,” White said in a statement. “With her incredible power numbers, she will add much depth to our lineup. She will also be an excellent fit as a person into our program.”
Sanders, the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, was one of 10 finalists for national player of the year after a junior season in which she led the NCAA with 29 home runs and 82 RBIs. She hit a career-high .388, posted a .524 on-base percentage, and had a NCAA-best 1.013 slugging percentage. She also drew 46 walks and struck out only 27 times. Sanders started all 55 games at shortstop and made only seven errors.
Sanders said earlier this week she planned to finish the semester at Louisiana before moving on to Oregon, which is on the quarter schedule. She said the firing of Louisiana softball coach Michael Lotief motivated her to transfer.
“At first, he got put on leave and I thought everything would be back to normal pretty soon,” Sanders said. “After that, he got fired. We expressed we didn’t want to play for anybody else if he got fired.”
Sanders said she knows one other player has opted to transfer. She said others are still deciding what they want to do.
Louisiana fired Lotief on Nov. 1 after it received complaints from students and an athletics department staff member. Louisiana said in a statement Lotief violated school and University of Louisiana System policies by allegedly subjecting student-athletes and co-workers to “violent, vulgar language and verbal and physical assault, creating a hostile learning and working environment.”
Lotief, who had been on leave since Oct. 6, denied the allegations.
Sanders said she couldn’t describe how upset she was after Lotief was fired. She credits him for helping her become one of the most feared hitters in Division I softball.
Sanders said she talked to her parents after Lotief was fired to decide her next step. She said Louisiana made the players wait until the following Monday to do anything. She said she was the second person to meet with school officials to obtain a permission to contact other schools so she could transfer.
Sanders said a number of schools already had contacted Lotief to see if they could talk to her. She didn’t do any research on schools because she said she never anticipated leaving Louisiana. Still, she sent her permission to contact to Arizona and Oregon of the Pacific-12 Conference. She said she didn’t want to sit out a year and transfer to a school in the Southeastern Conference, which doesn’t accept senior transfers.
Sanders said Oregon was “very persistent” in trying to get her to transfer. She said there probably hasn’t been a day since she sent her permission to contact to the school that someone from the softball program hasn’t talked to her.
“They made sure I knew they wanted me to be there,” Sanders said. “They also lost their shortstop last year, so they have my position open.”
Sanders said she visited Oregon’s campus in Eugene earlier this month and had a first look at Jane Sanders Stadium, which opened in 2016. She joked that it must have been a sign for her to go to Oregon and play in a stadium with her last name.
“I didn’t even know if I would be able to play this year,” Sanders said. “It kind of worked out and everything is pretty much ready to go now.”
Sanders won’t have a lot of rest during the holiday break. She said she will leave Dec. 9 to fly to San Francisco to meet her new teammates. Oregon then will fly from California to New Zealand for an overseas tour that will run from Dec. 9-23. She said she would return to Columbus following the trip before reporting back to Oregon for the start of school on Jan. 8, 2018.
“I can only hope it will be good,” Sanders said. “It is the Pac-12, so it will be better competition, so honestly, I could get out there and be terrible. I would hate for that to happen. At this point, I can only hope it works out well.”
Sanders also was a first-team All-Sun Belt Conference pick in 2017 and 2016. She played for the USA Softball junior national team in 2015.
Sanders enters her senior season with 51 home runs and 167 RBIs. She has started 164 consecutive games.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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